Get Big Pivots

Dirt-moving has officially begun on the third of five segments in Xcel Energy’s $1.7 billion Colorado Power Pathway

by Allen Best

As a ceremonial cliché, I suppose it’s harmless. Nor can I really think of any better way to mark the beginning of actual, physical construction of an electrical transmission line than by giving people — who likely haven’t worn gloves for their work in decades, maybe ever — white hard-hats, orange Dayglo safety vests, and white garden-sized shovels, all for the synchronous flinging of dirt as cell-phone cameras capture the moment.

This flinging occurred July 11 in a field of wheat stubble immediately south of St. Vrain, the natural gas plant that is part of Xcel Energy’s empire of electrical generation in Colorado.

Xcel is holding onto its gas plants but shedding all but one of its coal-burning units in the next four and a half years. Taking the place of that lost generation will be at least 5,000 megawatts of new generation, mostly from wind farms and solar projects whose electrons will be collected by the 550-mile Colorado Power Pathway. The transmission pathway will cross 12 of Colorado’s 64 counties. Cost has been pegged at $1.7 billion.

Still possible is the May Valley-Longhorn extension to southeastern Colorado, site of Colorado’s best wind and very strong solar, too. The cost of that extension has been estimated at $200 millionStill possible is an extension called Longhorn to southeastern Colorado, site of Colorado’s best wind and very strong solar, too. The cost of that extension has been estimated at $200 million.

Useful is understanding the Colorado Power Pathway is Xcel Energy’s website devoted to the work.

The dirt-tossing was to mark the beginning of a 75-mile segment from St. Vrain with a new substation southeast of Fort Morgan, near Pawnee, the coal plant. This segment, one of five, is expected to be completed by 2026 at a cost of $256 million.

Two of the five segments are already well along the way toward completion in 2025. Together the segments connect the substation in Morgan County with the May Valley substation north of Lamar.

That will leave just two segments, from the May Valley substation to Pueblo, and then from Pueblo northward in a corridor east of Interstate 25 and into the Denver metro area. Those segments are expected to be complete by 2027.

That’s about the time that Xcel largely exits coal from its Colorado operations. One Comanche unit at Pueblo has already been retired, a second will retire in 2025. The two units at Hayden will close by 2028. Xcel also owns production from Craig, whose three units will also get quiet in the next four-plus years. It will convert Pawnee, a plant at Brush, to natural gas.

The wind and solar – plus some natural gas and battery – collected by the Colorado Power Pathway will replace the coal generation.

“There cannot be an energy transition without transmission,” said Sandra Johnson, Xcel’s senior vice president for transmission in remarks prior to the ground-breaking. From the company’s headquarters in Minneapolis, she oversees transmission in the eight states in which Xcel operates.

The foundations had been laid but the transmission towers had not yet been erected on a segment south of Cheyenne Wells. Photo/Allen Best

Johnson traced the conception of the transmission line that will significantly alter eastern Colorado to 2019. Xcel was planning a proposal to state regulators about how exactly to pivot from coal to primarily renewables and dramatically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. It was called the field of dreams project.

“Planners back then had the foresight to recognize that where the energy resources are is where we need to build transmission,” Johnson said.

Xcel had erected a tent amid the field of wheat stubble large enough for a few dozen people, mostly company employees but also a few elected officials, current and former, as well as three reporters. The remarks were mostly congratulatory, displaying pride. They were filled with numbers. For example, the transmission lines had required 600,000 cubic yards of concrete, or as much as was required to build Denver’s Mile High stadium. Two more stadiums of concrete are yet to be poured for the tower foundations. The foundations are commonly 20 to 40 feet deep. Towers are generally 140 feet high but cannot exceed 190 feet.

Wrapping up the formal remarks, Robert Kenney, the president of Public Service of Colorado, Xcel’s division in Colorado, nodded at the zeal evident in remarks of his transmission team. He was, he said, surrounded by “people who get excited about steel and concrete and find transmission towers beautiful.”

Kenney described the Colorado Power Pathway as a “critical transmission super-highway” that will put an additional 5,000 megawatts of clean energy onto the electrical grid in Colorado.

Colorado Power Pathway, Photo/Allen Best

Portions of the Colorado Power Pathway, including this segment near Sheridan Lake, have essentially been completed but have not been energized. Photo/Allen Best

This 5,000 megawatts of new generation will be phased in over the next 5 to 10 years, Xcel says. The company estimates that 75% to 80% of the new generation will be for wind, with the remainder being a mixture of solar and storage.

Currently, 2,300 megawatts of that new generation are in the process of being contracted but are not yet under construction. This comes from the company’s energy resource plan submitted to state regulators in 2021.

Xcel’s team emphasized that this new highway of electrons will improve reliability.

“It’s a big loop around the eastern part of the state that allows for power to flow in multiple directions so that if there’s an outage somewhere in the system, power can flow a different way,” said Heather Brickey, the project director for the Colorado Power Pathway.

Allen Best
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